Many newly-announced titles have been added to our forthcoming releases database, Incoming,
this week, as well as additional details for many titles, and many more etailer links.
Please use the links to support Zeta Minor!

The disc actually features two versions of
the film: a letterboxed black-and-white version, and a colorized version
(which wasn't mentioned in the press release - understandable, since it's
nothing to be proud of).

The colorized version, from 1988, is a 4:3
presentation, with horrible, horrible colours, and distracting NTSC
conversion artefacts.

The black-and-white version is presented in
1.81:1 widescreen format, but without anamorphic enhancement! Amazing to
think that a video label of any repute would release a non-anamorphic
widescreen disc ten years after DVD made its debut. It, too, displays
signs of being sourced from an NTSC master.

The film was offered theatrically in
Superscope, a format that, rather like Super35, exposed the entire 1.33:1
frame, but matted the image to 2.0:1 for theatrical presentation.
(Basically, it was a way of creating a letterboxed image, without the
expense of hiring expensive anamorphic camera lenses).

The creaky old US disc presents the film in
2.35:1 format, and the framing is rather tight. The new UK disc has
more-or-less the same horizontal picture information, but more at the top
and bottom (too much, in fact, since splice marks are sometimes revealed
at the top or bottom of the frame). Somewhere between the two versions
would probably be right, indicating that 2.0:1 is the film's correct
ratio. (So, neither disc is right!)

For many years Invasion of the Body
Snatchers was presented on video and on TV in standard 4:3 format,
but, this wasn't created by going back to the original camera negative, it
was made by pan-and-scanning the matted widescreen version! The resulting
image was therefore cropped on all four sides (compared to the original
4:3 exposed frame).

Worryingly, the colorized version runs
almost five minutes longer than the black-and-white version (85'02" vs
80'10"). It's hard to see how this discrepancy can be accounted for, even
taking into account any variance that might have been introduced in the
transfer from film, or from NTSC to PAL!

Menu screens, and screen grabs comparing
the colorized and black-and-white versions are available
here.

HAMMER NEWS

A
new issue of Hammer fanzine par excellence, Little Shoppe of
Horrors,has been published by editor Richard Klemensen.

Terence Fisher directed many of the classic
horror films that set a new seal on what we expected in horror from the
1950s on. The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula,
Revenge of Frankenstein, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Man
Who Could Cheat Death, Stranglers of Bombay, The Mummy,
The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll, The Brides of Dracula, The
Curse of the Werewolf, Phantom of the Opera, The Gorgon,
Dracula - Prince of Darkness, Frankenstein Created Woman,
The Devil Rides Out, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell.

Would horror films be what they are today
without the visual and story mastery of Terence Fisher? He was, indeed,
“Hammer’s Master of Gothic Horror.” With the assistance of Fisher’s
daughter, Micky Harding, we are presenting a complete issue totally
devoted to Fisher, his life and films.

Neil Barrow spent more than ten years
researching the history of Fisher – the man and his films – and talked to
many of the people involved in their production. Author Mark Miller calls
Barrow’s career article, “gold.” So will you.

An Interview with Micky (Fisher) Harding

Terence Fisher’s daughter gives you inside
details on Fisher the man.

Making Magic… How the placing of HORROR OF
DRACULA under the microscope reveals Terence Fisher’s cinematic mastery

Robert Tinnell and Mark Clark use the crypt
scene from Dracula to show a great director at work. Illustrated
with over twenty-five scene grabs.